Publication details
“Are not witches always old and poor?” The theory and practice of witchcraft in Joanna Baillie’s Scottish play.
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Joanna Baillie’s play Witchcraft was published in the third volume of her Miscellaneous Plays (1836). The action of the play revolves around a Scottish witchcraft trial before the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in 1736. It deals with false accusations of witchcraft in superstition-ridden Scotland. The play uses witchcraft as a device to explore the effects of collective hysteria and of the individual’s situation in relation to social and historical processes. Witchcraft is a term usually referring to human actions that are believed to influence human or natural events through supernatural power. There are a number of recurring elements of witchcraft, i.e. performance of rituals, symbolic significance of objects, typical condition of a witch, etc. Baillie shows all these common features of witchcraft in her play in order to demonstrate how old, destitute and desperate female characters seek power, love and revenge, creating mass hysteria and paranoia in their accusers and the whole community. |